"deshoveled" for disheveled

The word “disheveled” is well nigh impossible for English speakers to parse. It comes from O.Fr. descheveler, meaning “with hair in disarray”, and ultimately from L. capillus, or “hair”. Though originally for the coif, it has come to be applied to general disorder, of dress or environment.

I like the idea that an unkept appearance is deshoveled, with different parts shoved this way and that, or perhaps with a hairdo that looks as though it has suffered clumsy spadework.

Bad Santa costume
Also part of this bad Santa Claus costume is you’re going to look more deshoveled. Your main top is going to be unzipped.

Daytime tv forum
she is so beautiful and talented but her style is so deshoveled and messy

Re: "deshoveled" for disheveled

Prima. The examples on the web number in the hundreds.

One web site, a news channel report (“Police say he looks dish-shoveled and could be homeless) manages to stack a dish next to the shovel. Shoveling with a dish? Shoveling food into the mouth from a dish?

Newspaper article: “He shuffles to the kitchen for coffee where he meets Premier Christy Clark, whose unevenly tussled hair makes it obvious she slept on her right side.”

Another newspaper: “Earlier in the evening, Vergne—in a dark suit and with his characteristic tussled hair swept neatly off his face—greeted guests streaming into the outdoor bar.”

“Tussled hair” shows up in current published sources at two percent of the frequency of “tousled hair.” See this Google Ngram.

I predict that “tussled hair” will displace “tousled hair” within fifty years. Straight-haired and bald people who insist on using “tousled” will be banished to a high-humidity island off the coast of Brazil and forced to wear curly wigs.